Kazakhstan's Minister of Culture Comments on Nazarbayev–Putin Meeting

Aida Balayeva, Minister of Culture and Information, said she learned about the recent meeting between Nursultan Nazarbayev and Vladimir Putin from the media, Orda.kz reports.

When asked to comment on the meeting, Balayeva responded:

Replying to further questions about the meeting's nature, she replied:

Unambiguously, this meeting was probably initiated by the first President (Nazarbayev. – Ed.). And, naturally, the press service of the Russian Federation published this. Well, I honestly can't even comment on it now. But it is important for us to work on such issues together. This is, as one can say, probably a separate block of work that we need to build. I myself saw this from the media. 

Asked whether the meeting could be viewed as an attempt to pressure Kazakhstan’s current President, Balayeva responded:

Your question is putting me in a stupor now, because I haven't thought about it. I haven't thought about it: pressure, not pressure. But at the same time, you are asking the right question because such things probably need to be regulated at the level of the press services of our countries.

The Kremlin published a video of the meeting, but the details of the conversation were not disclosed.

Original Author: Zhadra Zhulmukhametova